Disneyland Hotels - On site vs Off site

[Dis88]

Hi all

We’re currently planning our honeymoon (3rd time re-arranged!) and looking to spend a couple of days/nights at Disneyland.

Originally we had planned to treat ourselves to the Grand Californian but I want to look into off site hotels too.

Any recommendations? Walking distance would be great.

Thanks in advance!

[KarenG]

We have stayed onsite at the Grand Californian and it is absolutely beautiful with its own entrance to DCA.

That said we haven’t stayed onsite again on our subsequent six visits as there are so many hotels, many within a close walk (some are closer than one of the Disneyland onsite hotels!) that we prefer to stay at instead and save the considerable difference for other things.

As it’s your honeymoon you’ll likely want something a bit lovely and my stays have just been at Hiltons, Holiday Inns and whatever was cheap at the time. But i just wanted to back up your thought process that there are a lot of hotels within an easy walk of Disneyland.

[jdouds]

On-site is handy for several reasons but less of an issue in California as some of the offsite hotels are within easy walking distance. A lot will depend on when you are going and what level of normality prevails

[Dis88]

Thanks for your replies!

To be honest we will only be in Anaheim for 2 nights and most of that time will be spent exploring the parks so I’m wondering if The Grand Californian would be wasted on us as we won’t spend enough time in the hotel to enjoy it?! We were due to go September 2020 and I had rented DVC points but got stung when everything had to be cancelled so not keen on doing it that way again!

Any particular offsite recommendations would be welcomed (they don’t need to be particularly fancy - proximity to the park is the main factor for us)

[dx4100]

Best Western Plus is the closet and well priced with nice rooms.

[danisleigh]

We haven’t been before but have booked the Fairfield by Marriott across the road. This trip was moved from last year when we had the Grand legacy at the park booked then moved from august to October when we had the best western plus booked. All of those are on the south harbour blvd within walking distance of the park gates along with several others. I used google earth to check out hotels along that road then looked for deals on them.

[sky13]

In 2018 we did a split stay, I think 3 nights at the Fairfield Inn by Marriott and 4 nights at the GCH. I also looked into the Hyatt House and Springfield Suites when looking for hotels.

The Fairfield Inn is close walking distance to Disney. From Disney it is just across a road, a short walk to the left, and another short walk into the drive. There is very conveniently a McDonald's and a Panera Bread along the walk as well as a Pizza Hut Express inside the hotel itself. A bit of nickel and diming with the charge for early check in (we elected not to pay and to wait until the room was ready). The rooms had just been refurbished when we stayed and honestly I was not impressed, they were very basic, the air conditioner was loud, shower wasn't great... basically I would rate it as maybe similar to the WDW Values before they were refurbished (and far below the current standard of the refurbished hotels like Pop). However it was an affordably priced hotel for a few nights and this all doesn't matter too much if you just need a place to sleep.

Then... we moved to the GCH for the rest of the holiday, and, wow.

We checked in at 6am or so (wanting to take advantage of early entry), and the CM at check in found us a room along the lines of what I wanted right away, so we went straight to our room.

Room was newly refurbished and we really loved it - everything was bright, lots of lighting, shower was great, it was really comfortable. We had a nice balcony that overlooked the monorail (and from which you could see fireworks!), and it was very close to the GCH entrance to DCA.

The proximity of the room to the parks was great. During the day I'd just pop back to the room whenever to put away jackets or get jackets. I even managed to go onto the rapids ride, get soaked, and head straight back to the room to change (it wasn't even a 5 minute walk between the ride exit and the room).

Then there is the hotel itself... we were there around Thanksgiving, and the Christmas tree was already up, with a massive gingerbread house in the lobby that gave off that gingerbread scent whenever you were there. There were carollers and Santa made an appearance. The fireplace was lovely. We completely loved walking through the lobby to the room every day.

Plus the additional random activities - there was a tour of the hotel where they talk about the inspiration and design in the hotel, and I also did the early morning quick walk through DCA (for on site guests) which was really fun despite having to wake up before 6am for it!

Right now, over 2 years later, we still fondly talk about the few nights we spent at the GCH because we really really enjoyed that stay, everything about it was just great. We don't really think of the Fairfield Inn in quite the same way! That being said the GCH was about 3-4X the cost of the Fairfield Inn...

[ScoopsAhoy]

We wanted originally to be onsite this year but with all the uncertainty we decided just to book Staybridge suites now rather than wait till we know what’s happening with Disneyland.
If it’s not open to us by then we can just use it as a base for knotsberry farm and do some other day trips (horrendous traffic permitting)